A clinical technician who was awarded £166,595 in compensation after she was forced to resign from her NHS post because of health problems has failed to convince the Court of Appeal that the payout was nowhere near enough to reflect her true loss of earning potential.
The woman resigned from her hospital position a year after she was diagnosed with lupus, a condition which causes joint pains, skin rashes and fatigue. Her NHS Trust employers had made wholly inadequate efforts to enable her to return to work and an Employment Tribunal (ET) upheld her disability discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal claims.
She was initially awarded compensation of £105,643, but that was increased to £166,595 following a re-assessment. However, she remained dissatisfied with the level of the award and argued that the impact on her future earning capacity and the true value of her long-term financial losses had been greatly under-estimated.
The Court found that the ET had been justified on the evidence in concluding that the woman would be able gradually to return to her previous level of earnings over a 12-year period by working in an administrative role and gaining promotion into management. However, in allowing her appeal in part, the Court found that her pension loss had been valued on a mistaken basis and remitted that issue for a further ET hearing.